Results 21-40 of 43 for nama speaker:Peter Burke

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Peter Burke: In the Comptroller and Auditor General's report, the discount rate is backed up by NAMA's cashflow projections and we have a lower discount rate, 2.5%, on the extract that is replicated in the report. What work does Mr. McCarthy's office undertake to stress test it commercially? At times, I get a view that it has to be backed up by the minutes and the board and its replicated cashflows....

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Peter Burke: My concern is in terms of the value-for-money audit. We are checking everything that is in the board. We are checking the data and backup, or lack thereof, NAMA has had for its decision. Mr. McCarthy's scope is to get the backup for the discount rate NAMA chose. It had cited different discount rates in the past which were lower than the one it chose for the portfolio. This is the...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Peter Burke: ...was before the committee, he quoted €32 billion of contingent liabilities for the State in exiting the bailout and it was not an option to work all these loans out to 2020. We are reading NAMA strategy but things evolve as the pace in Europe gathers. Does Mr. McCarthy concur with the Minister's view? I know he is using work-out values in his report.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Peter Burke: ...the State had so much debt on its balance sheet, it had to get sales through and show that the banking system and the property market were getting back to some normality. Essentially that is what NAMA was there to do. That would be a fair point.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Peter Burke: In his opening statement Mr. McCarthy commented that he had spoken to NAMA's sister audit office in the United Kingdom and got advice from it on the report, and Northern Rock was used as an example. Mr. McDonagh said in his opening statement that, at the time, experts were sought on the valuation of assets in dealing with Northern Rock. I am beginning to understand now why Mr. McCarthy did...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Peter Burke: ...is one issue about which we have had a significant argument. In terms of the process, the way board meetings were dealt with, how decisions were recorded and the backup given, the discount rate NAMA was recommending to the board as late as June 2013 was lower than 5.5% at 2.5%, in other words, a greater discount rate essentially involved an increased risk to the taxpayer. I note the...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (10 Nov 2016)

Peter Burke: What teeth does the Minister have under the NAMA Act to direct it? If he believes a major sale was not conducted appropriately, where, in terms of good practice, it has failed to display that there was sufficient competitor tension and where he believes things were not done in a comparable way to other major sales, what teeth does he have to direct NAMA? Does he have any role in that regard?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (25 Oct 2016)

Peter Burke: ...taxpayer and the State and to address the frame of mind the Comptroller and Auditor General was in. An auditor can only judge on what evidence is put before him. There has been an admission by NAMA officials that their record keeping was not adequate in a number of areas in respect of recording an explicit justification for the departure of the 5.5% discount rate. Does Mr. Collison...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (25 Oct 2016)

Peter Burke: ...the evidence particular to Project Eagle does not stack up in respect of the clear detail of why a departure was taken. When one looks in detail at the board paper from December 2013 on page 42, NAMA used a 2.5% discount rate as well as a 5.5% for Northern Ireland. That is confusing for people who are trying to ascertain a departure from the 5.5% rate when the cashflow projections in one...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (25 Oct 2016)

Peter Burke: ...would have to agree that it is strange to see a lower discount rate than 5.5% being used in the evidence presented to the Comptroller and Auditor General in terms of events and board papers when NAMA was trying to argue that 10% was justifiable.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (25 Oct 2016)

Peter Burke: I accept that point but I come back to the wider context, which is this was the biggest sale that NAMA undertook at the time in terms of a block sale of all its Northern Ireland portfolio. Central to that is how the portfolio and cashflows were valued and discounted. Should there have been greater emphasis and clearer detail at board level and operational level given the documents we have...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (6 Oct 2016)

Peter Burke: ...arguably the main issue that will decide that. If one uses a rate of 5.5%, the implication is that there is a loss of over €190 million. If it is 10%, it reverses that completely. When the NAMA representatives were before us, Mr. Brian McEnery was making it clear that one of the prime assets in the control of NAMA was Dundrum shopping centre, which was sold at a discount rate...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: ...who are involved in this inquiry? Will he give us an idea of what private sector experience his staff have? The Comptroller and Auditor General mentioned that the staff have been working on NAMA for a significant period and that they have significant audit experience. What other experience have they?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: ...probable loss to the taxpayer. He is hanging his hat on that assertion. Essentially, he has to have evidence to support that. I do not think we can go back to the default discount rate that NAMA has been using for other projects. Does Mr. McCarthy accept that in order to support his assertions, he has to have evidence that this rate is correct for this specific project?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: I wish to focus on the Comptroller and Auditor General's previous audits of NAMA because this is a very important issue. Mr. McCarthy can confirm that he is a permanent member of NAMA's audit committee. Is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: Will Mr. McCarthy provide more detail? NAMA is a large State institution charged with delivering large numbers of loans from the banks and trying to make a profit for the taxpayer. How many meetings does his staff attend each year?

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: .... In terms of the Comptroller and Auditor General's previous auditing work, part of his office's function in auditing the National Asset Management Agency involved reviewing all board minutes of NAMA. Why has this matter not come to the committee's attention before? As Mr. McCarthy will accept, the loss is significant. The opening paragraphs of the summary set out how significant it...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: I thank the witnesses for appearing before the committee. I will first focus on the change in strategy to group all of the assets. Obviously, it was the biggest loan portfolio sale NAMA had undertaken at that point and it was a huge change in strategy to group all of the assets. I note from the Comptroller and Auditor General's report that there is no detail of the other options discussed...

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: Does Mr. Daly accept that this puts the Comptroller and Auditor General in a difficult position? I am not speaking for him but if the discussions NAMA had are not outlined clearly in the minutes it is difficult to formulate a detailed response to that. The processes are not in place, and this is consistent throughout all of this. The record keeping for major decisions appears to be very poor.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (29 Sep 2016)

Peter Burke: I cannot get evidence from talking to the witness that it was documented, so I will move on. I refer to evidence to support NAMA's assertion that a fractious relationship was building with its Northern Ireland debtors. What is meant by that and what evidence is there to suggest it? These were non-performing loans in the majority of cases. What is meant by the difficult or political...